Palace v Newcastle United

Selhurst Park, Sunday 2.15pm

Bakary Sako

Team news

Eagles winger Bakary Sako will sit out the rest of the campaign due to a fractured ankle and ligament damage. Sako suffered the injury after a crunching tackle from West Ham United's Pablo Zabaleta on Tuesday night that forced him off.

Deadline-day signing Alexander Sorloth is will go straight into the squad to give Roy Hodgson's side much-needed firepower in attack. Centre half Mamadou Sakho (calf) could be in line for a return to the starting line-up.

Defender Jeffrey Schlupp (knee) and midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek (ankle), plus Connor Wickham (knee) are still recovering from their respective injuries. Scott Dann and Jason Puncheon (both knee) join Sako in being ruled out for the rest of the season.

Newcastle's loan signing Islam Slimani will be assessed on a thigh injury before being selected in the starting XI. New goalkeeper Martin Dubravka goes into the squad after signing from Sparta Prague and Rob Elliot has recovered from a back issue. However, defenders Florian Lejeune (foot) and Jesus Gamez (ankle) are still missing.

Palace (from): Hennessey, Van Aanholt, Tomkins, Fosu-Mensah, Kelly, Milivojevic, Townsend, Zaha, McArthur, Benteke, Sorloth, Speroni, Ward, Sakho, Souare, Riedewald, Cabaye, Lee.

Newcastle (from): Darlow, Dubravka, Elliot, Yedlin, Manquillo, Dummett, Haidara, Lascelles, Clark, Mbemba, Merino, Hayden, Shelvey, Ritchie, Atsu, Murphy, Diame, Kenedy, Perez, Slimani, Joselu, Gayle.

Quotes

Roy Hodgson

"I think all teams appreciate their home advantage in the league there's no question about it. We in particular are pleased with our home advantage because we think we have a fantastic set of fans who really back the team and who support us wholeheartedly from the first to the last.

"Obviously playing at home is a big advantage as it was for Newcastle playing up there because they also have a very partisan crowd and a well supported team but i think it will be a close game.

"They're an organised team they know what they're doing, we like to think we are too. Both teams are desperate to get points from the game.

"Each team goes to bed on Saturday night dreaming of three points which will lift us into a more safe position in the league but it's all about what we can do on the day of the game, prepare as well as you can and hope if there's any luck going that it falls our way."

Rafa Benitez

"We are fine, the atmosphere is quite good, and the players are training really hard. We have a situation, it’s a normal football club trying to do their best in a competition like the Premier League, which is the best league in the world.

"I realise there are five points between tenth and the drop zone so it is very close, very narrow, and that is sometimes good because you have a lot of teams there. If you have three (detached) at the bottom it will be easier because you have a bigger distance, but that is not the case.

"Even if you have a bad result, you carry on, because the next one could be good and then you could be two or three positions higher."

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Newcastle United - league stats

Position	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points
14th	25	6	6	13	24

Full league table

Last five results

Date	Type	Home Team	Score	Away Team
21/10/2017	League	Newcastle United	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
30/04/2016	League	Newcastle United	1 - 0	Crystal Palace
28/11/2015	League	Crystal Palace	5 - 1	Newcastle United
11/02/2015	League	Crystal Palace	1 - 1	Newcastle United
24/09/2014	League Cup	Crystal Palace	2 - 3	Newcastle United

All time results

Last meeting

Newcastle United 1-0 Palace

Saturday October 21 2017

Newcastle United: Elliot, Lejeune, Lascelles, Manquillo, Yedlin, Shelvey, Ritchie, Atsu, Hayden (Merino, 56), Perez (Diame, 66), Joselu (Mitrovic, 78)

Subs not used: Clark, Darlow, Murphy, Gamez

Goals: Merino (86)

Palace: Speroni, van Aanholt, Sakho, Dann, Ward, McArthur (Sako, 88), Cabaye, Milivojevic, Schlupp, Townsend, Zaha (Loftus-Cheek, 77)

Subs not used: Puncheon, Hennessey, Tomkins, Fosu-Mensah, Riedewald